LUSAKA residents have called on all political parties who took part in the just ended general elections to start removing their campaign posters which are making the city look dirty.

Joyce Bombwe said campaign materials such as posters and flyers especially those pasted on road signs and other directional facilities were making the town look filthy.

She said now that campaigns and elections were over there was need for political parties to engage their cadres and start removing the posters around the city.

Kelvin Chambwa also said posters especially at Kafue and Kabwe roundabouts were making the city look even dirtier, stating that the local authority should move in quickly and address the issue.

Mr Chambwa said it was unfortunate that politicians were in the forefront of making the city dirty by sticking posters anyhow.

And Christopher Mulenga added that political parties must ensure that environmental protection and public safety was upheld in the course of posting or distributing electoral campaign materials.

Mr Mulenga advised political parties to abide by the guidelines of the electoral code of conduct as they removed their post-electoral campaign materials.

He said the electoral code of conduct states under article 10 (f) and (g) that political parties and candidates shall take appropriate measures to ensure environmental protection and cleanliness in the course of posting or distributing electoral campaign materials.

And under (g), the electoral code of conduct states that political parties and candidates shall remove campaign materials within 14 days of the declaration of the election results.

Meanwhile, University of Zambia lecturer Alex Ngoma said there is need for the Lusaka City Council and other municipalities to come up with a law that will compel political parties to buy advertising space for their political campaign materials unlike the indiscriminate placing of posters on traffic road signs and writing of graffiti on wall fences.

Dr Ngoma, who is a political analyst, said the political campaign period had been characterized by the indiscriminate placing of posters on road traffic signs and the writing of graffiti on wall fences and has suggested to the council to come up with a regulation that will compel political parties to be paying for placing adverts within a specified location. He said that this initiative had worked in other African countries where political parties are given advertising space within a specific time frame.

“Political parties just like everyone else should buy advertising space of their own. District and city councils must come up with a regulation so that at the end of the campaign period political parties remove their posters so that the city remains tidy.

The graffiti writings such as those which were done during the UNIP campaigns are still visible today; so my suggestion is for the council to work with the Electoral Commission of Zambia to curtail this scourge as punitive measures could be applied that will instill adherence by political parties,” he said.